Jeff Berlin – Bass

This is more of an approximation than a transcription and shows my inadequacies as much as anything. I love this video. JB can be overly chopsy for me sometimes and I don’t really like his versions of ‘Imagine’ and ‘Tears In Heaven’ as I think these are both tunes where the lyrics ARE the song and the melodies are not strong enough for instrumental versions to be successful. I acknowledge that my opinions are worth little and people may have another view. This ‘Jeff Berlin Improvises Beethoven’ video, though, is one of the strongest instrumental solos pieces I have ever heard him do (I do love his approach to ‘Dixie’, though) and thought I would have a crack.

Bad idea.

There is not strict tempo and the whole thing can be interpreted in so many different ways that I just ended up with serial ‘bits’ that, strung together, may get you somewhere in the region of the original. There is one section where he arpeggiates triads and, whilst I could identify the shapes, I could not make sense of them enough to write it down. Despite my failure to do it justice, I decided to post it so that people can used it to try and make sense of this beautiful performance and maybe try their own transcription.

A great little video, though, and one I could listen to again and again, even though I can only play snatches of it.